REISNER@dmb.csiro.au (07/08/89)
On July 1 BIONET received notification that the NIH would not renew its
grant. As matters stand, BIONET, therefore, will cease operations on the 30
September this year.
Several years ago Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organization's (CSIRO) Division of Molecular Biology (now
Biotechnology) placed on line its Molecular Biological Information Service
(MBIS) which is patterned on BIONET and dependant upon it. The 100 or so
individuals who use MBIS throughout Australia have obtained significant
benefit from the software that BIONET has made available, the bulletin
boards run by it, more recently the Tables of Content that are being
provided, and by no means least the active realization that they BELONG to
the 'global molecular biological village' so fostered by the electronic
communication of which BIONET is so much a part.
The effect that closing BIONET may have on Australian Molecular Biologists
can have little bearing on decisions made effecting what is a domestic
matter. Nevertheless, it must be realized that the closing of BIONET will
have international consequences.
Obviously as an outsider I am not privy to the detailed reasoning that led
to the recommendations that were made by the site committee, but the
shutting down of BIONET appears irrational. If BIONET ceases to function,
surely it will only be a matter of time before some instrument will be
placed into operation to fulfil the services BIONET presently provides. One
of the points raised by our extra Divisional users is that for them to have
to provide resources to update databases, provide new software and guidance
in its use would be non cost effective. With the expected exponential
increase in sequence data in the near future and the implementation of large
secondary databases the utility of a national service would appear to be
increasingly important. In short to dismantle BIONET simply to build a
clone seems unreasonable.
I visited BIONET some eight months ago and was struck by the competence,
dedication and enthusiasm that its staff brought to the Service and to its
improvement. There is no doubt that Australian Molecular Biology will be
the poorer for BIONET's demise; I suspect America's will be as well.
Alex Reisner
MBIS
Division of Biotechnology
CSIRO
Sydney